1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording system including a plurality of recording heads, and a plurality of controller respectively controlling the recording heads, a recording apparatus, and a recording method of the recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
Ink jet printers are known as a recording apparatus. The ink jet printers are divided into a serial printer and a line printer by recording method. The serial printer moves a carriage having a recording head mounted thereon in a main scan direction in a reciprocating fashion, and then performs a printing operation on a recording sheet by ejecting ink drops on the sheet in the reciprocating movement (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-229953).
One known type of line printer includes a plurality of recording heads arranged in a zigzag fashion so that nozzles covers the entire width of a large width recording sheet (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006-263931 and 2007-69448). Another known type of line printer includes a wide recording head extending across the entire width of a large width recording sheet (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-245383).
The printer having a plurality of recording heads has typically contained a single controller controlling the plurality of recording heads (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006-263931, 2007-69448, and 11-245383).
If a plurality of recording heads are arranged the known recording apparatuses as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006-263931, 2007-69448, and 11-245383, the controller needs to perform a data generation process to generate ejection data for each recording head in accordance with a arrangement pattern of the recording heads and a data transfer process to sort the generated ejection data for each of the recording heads. The number of recording heads in use become large (as many as 10 heads or so, for example) in particular in a large-scale line printer. The data generation process for generating the ejection data for each recording head and the transfer process for sorting the ejection data for each recording head become complex. The design and manufacture of such a controller become a difficult task. Such a difficult task, which may be performed when the printer is modified or a new model is developed, becomes a burden in the development and manufacturing activity.